Journeys in the heart and mind of the not-so-typical Southern Male

Yesterday, I headed out to look for concentrated barley straw extract. Was looking for it to use to clean up the algae bloom currently going on in the pond. After trying three places in Madison, none of them had it but all told me to go to this place way the hell up on North Parkway. So I resigned myself to going up there and took a shortcut (Jeff Rd -> Blake Bottom Rd -> Highway 53 -> Springfield Rd -> Pulaski Pike -> Winchester Rd) that put me out right next to where I needed to be. And wouldn't you know it, they had exactly what I needed. Now I know where to go for pond supplies.

Being that I was on that end of town anyways, bored with nothing to do, I stopped by koakako's house to see what he was up to. He was working on his wife's car rotating the tires, doing an alignment, and fixing the fan relay. I wasn't actually planning on this, but we ended up looking at my truck as well.

It had been having a vibration at highway speed and pulling to the right. I took it to NTB in Madison before I left on vacation and they told me they fixed the alignment, but it was still pulling to the right and vibrating. So I had KO take a look at it. I had kind of figured it was a tire imbalance, so we ended up rotating those to the back, and fixed the alignment as well. So now it drives smooth up front and doesn't pull to the right anymore. There's a noticeable vibration from the rear, but I'll get those tires re-balanced at some point in the future. For now, at least it's drivable at highway speeds again.

Afterward, to thank him for fixing my truck, I took him out for sushi!

We also stopped at Great Spirits. It's amusing when I think how much, in some ways, I've changed since college. When I went to the alphabet shop in Auburn, I'd usually come out with some Jim Beam, maybe some Kahlua and Seagrams Seven. I walked out of Great Spirits yesterday with an excellent Port wine, a bottle of Honey mead, and a Three Philosophers Belgian-style Quadrupel. I guess I'm growing as an alcoholic drinker.